Arctic sea ice hits record low, and keeps going

Summer storm and thin ice probably contributed to massive melt

With weeks still left in the summer melt season, the Arctic Ocean’s floating skin of ice has already shrunk to a record minimum.

As of August 26, Arctic sea ice covered 4.10 million square kilometers — 70,000 square kilometers below the previous satellite-era record from 2007, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo.

“The ice cover is now just so thin and weak in the springtime that large parts of it can’t survive the melt season,” says NSIDC director Mark Serreze.

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